A continuously variable transmission pulley is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,275 B1 (2002) to Serkh which discloses a pulley having sheaves with belt blocks arranged circumferentially about a sheave centerline.
Also representative of the art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,492 (1987) to Hattori et al. which discloses a pulley having a plurality of drive blocks arranged between pulley surfaces.
The prior art pulleys rely upon coaxial sheaves that are axially moveable relative to one another. Such movement requires mechanisms and equipment separate from and in addition to the pulley. This adds complexity and expense.
What is needed is an expandable pulley that has an automatically expandable belt bearing surface. What is needed is an expandable pulley having a belt bearing surface expandable by a biasing member force applied axially to a conical member. The present invention meets these needs.